If you can believe it (I can’t), I just spent my FOURTH weekend in a ROW in the countryside. Okay fine, it was only about 5.5 hours but we were hiking for all of it, so give me a break.
Quick recap:
Wknd(ish) 1- Shooting-star-gazing at Alice Holt Forest
Wknd 2: Annual Langridge Barbeque (Deets below — the first one I went to was last year)
Wknd 3: The Limerick Show in Ireland!
Wknd 4: An 11.1 mile hike through the North Downs Way. (Deets below)
Gah. I’m already tired again.
Wknd 2: We got to Newick on Friday night and arrived to a lovely roast duck dinner. On Saturday morning, I went along with James’ parents on BBQ errands, to pick up all the ingredients. I volunteered to do the dessert, so I had to pick some stuff up too. I’d heard them talk about Forest Row, the biodynamic organic farm they frequent for meats and vegetables, and I was curious to see it. It was a huge area and this is going to sound ridiculous but…I’d never seen vegetables so small! Amazing what they look like when they’re not enhanced!! (They look dirty. And small. And … natural.) Oops. Forgot to take any pictures there, it looks like. I spent the rest of the afternoon desserting (usually it doesn’t take that long! But without my trusty co-chef Sarah by my side, it took…wouldja believe it? Twice as long).
The next afternoon, the Langridges’ friends came by and we had a great BBQ! The food was delicious, the company/conversation was lovely and the entertainment included James fire-juggling and me casually sniping milk cartons and water bottles. Only a slight change from knife-juggling and archery last year!
Wknd 4: I was not excited about this. But James is trying to make us be healthier and I do a great job resisting, to test his resistance to my resistance 🙂
But I ended up really enjoying it! The weather was perfect. Shorts and tee weather, but not too hot. We took an hourlong train ride down to Farnham (kind of close to where we went shooting-star-gazing) around noon:30, and started on the North Downs Way at 1:37pm. So we wouldn’t be carrying around a ton of weight, we just took a couple of sandwiches, a couple of fruits, and a couple of bottles of water. Oh well yes, and iphones with maps and stuff. It was nice to be outside, to be all naturey, as I, of course, am a countryside girl.
Some of the things we saw!
The puns section:
Your upward path, my downward flow
are fixed by law divine.
My task is to refresh your soul
Yours to discover mine.
We hiked to Guildford,
and then got a half hour train back to London. We miraculously were in, showered and out in 19 minutes and on our way to Pallavi’s birthday drinks at Casa Negra, which meant we thankfully avoided long lines and cover charges. I was also starving, so I ordered us their chicken tacos (delicious) and their chips and guac (okay), along with a spiced mango frozen margarita (also just okay). The rita was from a machine and I wanted it blended in front of me! Oh, Texas. Then I went home and basically passed out for 100 hours.
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